Code of Conduct

Thank you for being part of our community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the medium. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions can be submited via the Contact Us link in the upper right corner of each page.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violate these rules.

The Rules and The Legal Stuff

See The American Institute of Architects Community Conduct below for the most up to date rules and legal stuff.

Discussion Forum Etiquette

Impersonating another user is strictly prohibited.

Avoid discussing specific fees. Do not encourage or direct users to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Posts that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are prohibited: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, location.

State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.

Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response before the original posting.

Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from.

Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals--not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link to the left of every message.

Do not send administrative messages, such as remove me from the list. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing e-mail addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new e-mail address. Simply change your settings.

Community Conduct

Thanks for choosing to participate in the exchange of ideas and information in the AIA’s online community. To ensure the best possible experience for all users, we have established these rules of conduct applicable to those who participate. Please read these rules carefully as it contains important information regarding your legal rights, remedies, and obligations.

Social media tools and sites are constantly evolving. The AIA, therefore, reserves the right, in its sole discretion to change, modify, add, and delete portions of these rules at any time without further notice. Such modifications will be effective immediately upon posting. You agree to review the rules regularly to be aware of such modifications, and your continued access or use of our sites shall be deemed your conclusive acceptance of the modified rules.

The Rules

Don't intimidate, attack, or harass other users. The discussions on our sites are meant to stimulate conversation not to create contention. Be courteous; let other users have their say, just as you may.

Don't post commercial messages on our sites. Contact people directly with product and service information if you believe it would help them.

Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on our sites is available for all to see, and is subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.

Do not encourage or direct users to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are prohibited: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything on our sites that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.

Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants the AIA and users of our sites a nonexclusive license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Do not use our sites in any unlawful manner or in any other manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the sites.

Do not harvest or collect e-mail addresses or other contact information of other users from our sites by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited e-mails or other unsolicited communications.

Do not upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation.

Do not upload, post, transmit, share, store, or otherwise make publicly available on our sites any private information of any third party, including, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or financial information.

Do not upload, post, transmit, share, or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.

Do not upload, post, transmit, share, store, or otherwise make available content that would constitute, encourage, or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party, or that would otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national, or international law.

Do not upload, post, transmit, share, store, or otherwise make available objectionable content, content which restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying our sites, or which may expose the AIA or other users to any harm or liability of any type.

The Legal Stuff

AIA online community sites are provided as a service of the AIA. The AIA is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on our sites: Archiblog series, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, collaborative/Sharepoint sites, member forums.

Warranty Disclaimer. AIA online community sites are provided “as is” and the AIA disclaims to the fullest extent permitted by law any and all representations and warranties, whether express or implied, including without limitation, implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or noninfringement. The AIA makes no warranties or representations about the accuracy or completeness of our sites’ content and does not endorse any user content posted on our sites. The AIA assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors, mistakes, or inaccuracies of any content; personal injury or property damage of any nature whatever resulting from your access to and use of our sites; any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from our sites; any bugs or viruses which may be transmitted to or through our sites by any third party. The AIA does not warrant, endorse, guarantee, or assume responsibility for any product or service advertised or offered by a third party through our sites or any hyperlinked site, or featured in any banner or other advertising, and the AIA will not be a party to or in any way responsible for monitoring any transaction between you and third-party providers of products or services.

Limitation of Liability. Under no circumstances will the AIA or its affiliates be liable to any user for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages arising from any provision of these conduct rules or your use of our sites. You specifically acknowledge that the AIA shall not be liable for user content or the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of any third party and that the risk of harm or damage from the foregoing rests entirely with you.

Indemnity. You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the AIA, its Board of Directors, members, affiliates, components, employees and agents from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney’s fees) arising from your use of and access to our community sites; your violation of any of these conduct rules; your violation of any third-party right, including without limitation any copyright, trademark, property, or privacy right; any claim that one of your comments caused damage to a third party. The foregoing indemnification obligation will survive these conduct rules and your use of the AIA online community sites.